 My name is Dimo. I've been in this country chair for five years. I've been homeless now for the last 10 years. Well, marriage split up. Lost the job. Made in London, lost the job. There was nothing there in the town where I was in Newcastle. So I had to come to this place to find work, but it never happened. You know, when I left my marriage I walked away with just a dog. You know what I mean? That was it. Ever since then life changed. My name's Alan Ferguson. I'm 67 years old. I've been on the streets since January 19, 2016. I was originally in a flat in Gosport down in Portsmouth. My landlord gave me three days notice that he wanted to sell the flat. I've moved out within the three days. Lost absolutely every possession I own. Only to find out that what he'd done was illegal. But it's too late, but then I'm on the street and I can't afford to take him into court and all that. And the flat is still empty now, four years later. The flat is still empty. He still hasn't sold it or filled it up with anything. So that's why I'm here. In August in Gilef, I'm 30. And this time I've been on the streets for a month. I'm a web developer. I was foolish enough to think that I can get the same job faster, but it wasn't the case. Three years ago I was six months in the streets. I was a newcomer in London and I was scammed from a job in Kingston. They were paying under the table and they didn't pay and they fired me so I got no proof. I couldn't find another job and that pushed me back to my bad habits. So I started using again and I decided to stay on the streets and I was in the trap of the heroin. All kinds of stuff, Jesus, painting, music, art, origami, poetry, philosophy. I educated myself. Never had a television. Never had a television, so I educated myself. But I'm kind of going blind now. So I can't read as much. I used to love reading, education. How much time I do their pavement art as well? You know, pastels. I do like a big portrait or something. Poetry or something. Keep this occupied. I was an artist. I do art. I do quite well at it as well. When I was in Winchester homeless I was doing really well, I saved quite a lot of money to buy a caravan which got stolen off me. But I ended up getting beaten up one morning and my face kicked in by these drunkards and they tore all my artwork up and everything. So I left it and moved on sort of thing. But that's what I used to do for a living artwork. I'm a middle-class family. I just had too many wrong choices. Life can be very good in Bulgaria but it's not compared to here. One hour here equals the salary of one day work in Bulgaria. The prices of the food are the same. In Bulgaria you have to work like a decent job to survive and here you can survive on the minimum wage. It was hard the first time I stepped off here. It is for most people, especially with girls. I've seen a lot of young women sleeping rough but I don't think that's right. I don't think it's right. It's an obstacle you've got to get over in life. You've got to get over it. People say they can't, but they've got to. There's no such way that it's can't. You've got to. You want to survive. You've got to. It's just like a nightmare. You just don't know what to do. I was wandering the streets and no sleeping back, no nothing. Actually I didn't sleep for two days. I didn't know how to do it, where to do it. I was scared that I'm going to be robbed. I slept behind the bus station. I had my little dog with me then. I gave her up two days later and gave her to a good family. It was winter, it was January, it was freezing. There was nobody to help. There was absolutely nobody to help. I didn't know about all the places I know about now. That was down in Gosport where there was nothing. There was quite a problem all around the south coast. It's not just London. I've lived in Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, and now London as a homeless person. Every time I've been there it's full of homeless people everywhere you go. My fingers are falling off the frostbitten. You know what I mean? I'm a shab and I still play the guitar. It was never good anyway. Probably an improvement. I've been robbed four to five times. About four or five times. A couple of drug dealers robbed me and fought me. In Winchester I've had my face kicked in, all my nose smashed in. It's seven o'clock in the morning by a drunkard. I got beat up by seven people in Winchester drunkards that tore all my artwork up. In Southampton I was beaten up by three drunkards. In London I've been beaten up by two drunkards. I've had petrol squeezed on me, lighter petrol squirted on me by a group of kids up in Whitechapel. Someone that took me from the street to their home he gave me roofing and tried to rape me. He was still trying to push me and kiss me with the last amount of power that I had to push him and get off. I nearly lost my life twice. That was bad. I stabbed the side of my head. That was a bad experience. I was in a coma for two months. Couldn't remember nothing. Couldn't remember who'd done it. To this day I don't know who'd done it. But that was a bad experience. Two people pissed out of their head and they hit me with a traffic cold. So I hit them back and everyone stabbed me. Over something stupid. Stupid. You've got all these empty buildings in and around London doing nothing. All these fat cats just leaving them empty. They could be charged a five pound a week even if they were charged five pound a week to a homeless person to have one of them rooms. I just can't understand the logic of leaving it all empty. Leaving people like us out on the street because it's not like we're idiots. It's not like we're violent criminals or anything like that. We're just people at a hard time in life. Bang, we've ended up on the street. You know what I mean? There's a chance that you can help them. You know what I mean? But they don't. They'd rather walk by. Not everybody that's on the street is a drug addict or an alcoholic or what have you. People are there because of social problems. You know, a greedy landlord in my case. You know what I mean? War-torn people in the soldiers cases in my have you and other things. The foreign people coming from war-torn places and things like that. It's all about communication. That's what's missing on the street, you know what I mean? And it could happen to anybody overnight. That's the whole crux of the matter. I never in my lifetime thought I would end up on the street. You know, I've seen loads of it through my life. But it could happen overnight to anybody. You know what I mean? And if only people become aware of this, like you know what I'm saying? That's the age we're living in. Yeah, sadly. You know what I mean? That's probably the biggest problem we've got is people don't talk to us enough. You know what I'm saying? We spend days and days and days and days without talking to anybody, you know what I'm saying? They're quick to drop off things, bless them. We're very grateful for everything that's happened, you know, that they help us with. But I'd rather someone stop the money and chat it with me, because then they become aware. Oh yeah, shit. You got good and bad in everyone, don't you? Yeah, I've got a lot of good people. Always like that. Always nice to say hello to me, you know what I mean? Am I okay? You know, of course. Of course. There's not all badness out there. There's a lot of good people out there telling the truth. I'm hungry. They want something to eat. You know, are you okay? You know. That's nice when you hear that. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm all right. You sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Well it's nice just them to acknowledge it. You know what I mean? I'm not just a piece of shit sitting here. Waiting to die, you know what I mean? Better off dead if you ask me. Next time you're out and you walk past somebody who's homeless, whether you drop to a pound or whether you just stop and say hello and maybe take five minutes or make a special effort to go out and talk to a homeless person that day and give 10 minutes, 15 minutes of your life just to talk to a homeless person and find out the story. Rather than a pound, I'd rather someone sat down for 15 minutes and listen to a story and listen to what's happened. You know what I mean? That way that's another person that will react. You know what I mean? And help. Yeah. If you are a homeless person, don't give him money, it's people to give him. Maybe some food, advice, smile, hook. Just me on the fighter, I won't give in. Plus I've got a really good friend. The two of us together take on anything, you know what I mean? I've lasted four years so far at my age, so I ain't done bad. Nice to fight all of us. You know what I mean? Irrespective who you are, where you come from, life's a fight, life's a battle, so get on with it. Yeah, yeah. Well, look at myself and see what I've become and knowing what I was and what I can become. This is giving me power to cope that I'll be a normal person again. It's going to get worse. It's going to get worse before it gets better. I mean, there's a big thing with the evening stand at the moment. They're going to try to make homelessness in London a thing of the past in two years. Yeah, all right. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? It's a bit like the plastic thing in the oceans. It's gone too far. It's gone too far. This should have been tackled 10, 15 years ago. I don't think we'd be able to change it. I don't think we can change it. I think it's too far gone. There's a lot of ignorance. There is no darkness, just ignorance. The people just open their eyes. William Shakespeare said that there is no darkness but there's ignorance.